The Old And The New Rangers
by Lily Hanson
Summary: Poisandra thinks she's on the trail of the yellow Energem. Sledge wants to take it at all costs. But there's no such thing as a yellow Energem.
1. Poison in Harwood

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Megaforce or Dino Charge. This story is fan-made._

Gia was in her kitchen, preparing three different meals for dinner while also trying to keep an eye on the two kids, Tiger, and the TV. To say multitasking was necessary was a mother was to state the obvious.

It was her night to look after the kids. While Ciara was her responsibility full time, she and Jake had set up an arrangement with Jordan and Emma that would offer both couples two assured date nights a month, as well as quality time with the babies. Every Friday, one of the couples would look after Ciara and Joe, as well as Tiger, for the night so the other couple could get a well deserved rest.

This Friday, it was Gia and Jake's turn to look after the babies. But since the soccer season had started, Jake was on the road and currently out of state. It meant Gia was on her own taking care of the two kids and her cat. Not that she minded – but it did mean she had a lot more to juggle.

As she warmed up the milk for Ciara and Joe, she poured a handful of cereal each on their high chairs for them to snack on. It would keep them busy until their bottles were ready and allowed Gia to focus on cooking her own meal. As for Tiger, the big cat was going to have to wait a little longer to eat. Because she preferred her meat raw, and Gia worried about cross contamination with the kids, she always prepared their meals before getting started on Tiger's. She had made herself sick once trying to juggle all three meals at a single time. She couldn't imagine inflicting that pain on the babies.

Finally, though, the bottles were warmed. Gia poured some milk in a sippy cup for Joe. It was spill proof and he knew how to drink on his own. And if he choose to throw the cup around until Gia could get around to helping him, at least she wouldn't have a big mess to clean up. For Ciara, she poured the rest of the milk in a regular bottle, took the girl from her high chair, sat her on her lap, and fed Ciara while she ate her own meal.

Suddenly, Gia heard a growl, and glanced away from the TV to see what had cause Tiger to whine. She saw Joe's cup next to the big cat and sighed.

"Seriously?" she looked to her nephew. "Do you have to hit her every time?"

Gia put her fork down, held onto her daughter, and got up to grab the cup. As she handed it back to Joe, she looked him in the eyes, "No hurting the cat, got it?"

Joe laughed and dropped his cup on the floor. Gia sighed, shifted Ciara in her arm to hold her up and keep the bottle near her mouth, grabbed Joe's cup and stuck it in his mouth for him.

"There you go," she said when he started drinking. "See, that's how you use a cup."

While Gia wasn't looking, Tiger reached up and started eating off her plate. Once Ciara was finished drinking, and Joe got the message that he was supposed to drink from his cup, not throw it, Gia turned back to her meal, only to find it gone.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" she frowned at the cat. "I've got a steak in the fridge for you! All you had to do was wait until I was done!"

Tiger burped. Gia sighed. She finished feeding the kids, set them in their playpen in the living room and then started to clean up the kitchen. As she wiped down the high chairs, she heard the news come on TV. The story featured the Rangers, as it always did, and their latest battle to protect Amber Beach from aliens. Gia rolled her eyes.

She supported the new Rangers. She knew firsthand what it was like to have the weight of the world on her shoulders and so knew the job was a tough one. Not to mention, the appearance of the new team turned public opinion of the Rangers back into a favourable one. Now that the danger was back, and there was a threat to all of humanity, people who had once been against the Rangers were now praising the efforts. Gia recognized a lot of people who had threatened her after her identity had been revealed, and heard them now claiming the Rangers were the best thing to ever happen to humanity.

They weren't wrong, though Gia would admit to being a little bias. Yet, despite all the good that came from having a new team able to fend off evil, new Rangers meant new danger. It seemed the Armada wasn't the last threat to the Earth. It made Gia a little uneasy, which was why she still kept her Super Megaforce morpher handy. She had a new pocket on her belt designed specifically to fit it in. Amber Beach wasn't too far from Harwood County, so there was a possibility of the aliens stepping foot in her city, getting near her family and especially her daughter and nephew. Gia wanted to be prepared, just in case.

Once she finished cleaning in the kitchen, she heard a knock on the door. She had no idea who it could be. Jordan and Emma always just let themselves in. Even when the door was locked, which it often was, they both had a key. Jake often lost his key, but he was supposed to be out of State for another couple of weeks. Rebecca, usually let herself in with the key she shared with Troy, and when she didn't have it, her knock would be the beat of her latest favourite song. When Troy came by, he usually brought Ryan so she could play with the babies. If they needed to knock, Ryan's little pounding wouldn't stop until the door opened.

Noah always knocked four times and Orion would ring the bell twice. In a way, all the variations of specific knocks were another form of security. Gia would always know who was at the door, and if she couldn't tell, it was likely a stranger. She glanced to Tiger as she walked to the front of the house, and the cat set herself between the door and the babies – just in case.

Gia opened the door, ready to cautiously greet whoever it was, but found no one on her porch. She stepped out, glanced over to Jordan and Emma's side of the house, but still, no one was there.

Then she heard a noise from the back of the house.

"Tiger," she said. "Guard."

This was serious. Tiger instinctually protected the babies, but when Gia gave a command, it meant she sensed danger. Tiger could hear and smell something odd lurking around, but given they were living in a city under development, there were often weird sounds and strange smells.

Gia shut the front door and rushed to the back of the house. She looked through the glass door to see if there was anyone in the backyard. No one was there, but Tiger's ball wasn't where the cat left it. In fact, it was slowly rolling, as if it had just been pushed or nudged. Gia stepped away from the back door and moved to the living room. She scooped Joe and Ciara out from the playpen.

"We're going to play upstairs," she told them. She gathered Joe's bear and Ciara's blanket and walked to the stairs. "Tiger, get the gun."

Tiger cat obeyed, rushing to the front of the house where Gia had dumped her uniform. She grabbed the belt in her mouth and carried it up the stairs, where Gia had taken the kids into Ciara's room. She set the kids in the crib before taking her gun out of the holster.

"Don't bring it home," Gia rolled her eyes as she imitated Jordan's warning to her. "It should stay at work, locked up, so no one can use it against you."

She unlocked the safety and looked down at her cat, "Who's right now?"

Just then, Gia heard a noise from downstairs. Tiger heard it too and started to growl. She walked towards the door, but Gia shook her head.

"Stay here, watch the kids," she told the cat. "Don't leave their side, got it?"

Tiger didn't seem sure. She had a really bad feeling about whoever – or whatever – was downstairs. But Gia gave her a look.

"I'm serious," she said, then reached to her belt and grabbed her morpher. "Protect them, Tiger. Don't leave them for a second."

Tiger gave Gia a little nod then went to sit in front of the crib. Gia took in a deep breath before stepping out of the room. She closed the door behind her, hoping that if someone did get past her, the door would discourage entry. She knew it wasn't likely, but it was better than leaving the kids completely exposed.

Very quietly, she walked down the hall, back to the stairs. Tiger had taught her how to move without making much noise. It was one of the benefits of having a stealthy predator for a pet. When Gia reached the stairs, she heard an irritating shriek.

"Well, keep looking!" whoever was downstairs said. "I picked up on a strong energy here and we're going to find it!"

"Strong energy?" Gia frowned, then looked down at her morpher in her hand. "They couldn't be..."

She stepped down a couple stairs and glanced into the living room. There, she saw a... she wasn't sure what exactly. She had seen this alien on TV a couple of times, and had argued about her description with Jordan. He claimed she was a love-monster, due to her heart shaped features, as well as the massive heart sticking out from her chest. Gia claimed it was Emma in alien form; dangerous masked by a sweet, caring appearance.

"What's alien Emma doing here?" Gia whispered to herself. Gia was about to sneak down a little closer, hoping to see what was going on before she jumped in, when suddenly she heard Joe crying upstairs and suddenly, the alien turned to her.

"There!" she called out and Gia rushed down the stairs, dropping her gun in favour of her morpher. She was just about to morph when, from behind, someone grabbed her. She looked down and recognized the arms of the latest foot soldiers. The heart shaped alien had not come alone.

"Viviks," Gia muttered and remembered hearing the newest team calling them that on TV once. She tried to pull away from the one holding her, but another joined in and grabbed her arm. Suddenly, more started to pile on, grabbing an arm or a leg or whatever they could get a hold of in order to keep Gia still.

"Fuck," Gia muttered and glared at the heart-shaped alien. "Any chance we can talk this out?"

"Sure," she nodded, then snatched Gia's morpher from her hand. "I'll take this!"

"I said talk, not take!"

"You're one of those Rangers," the alien said. "The ones keeping my Sledgeums from getting all the energems."

"Uh, wrong team," Gia shook her head. "See, you're thinking about the dinosaurs. You know, the ones with the T-Rex or the raptor looking costumes. I'm a pirate."

"Is there a difference?" the alien asked.

"Let me morph, and I'll show you," Gia said.

"I don't need to see you morph," the alien said. "See, my Sledey-poo has been searching for millions and millions of years for ten energems. They come in different colours."

"Yeah, I guess, if they create Rangers, they'd have to," Gia shrugged.

"I've been waiting _forever_ to get married to my beloved Sledgey-wedgie. This mission is taking way too long, so I thought, I'd help out."

"Okay, this Sledgey-wedgie-poo-ums guy, does he look anything like you? Because by the sounds of it, you're the scary one, and I'm not really all that scared of hearts?"

"Sledgey-kins is the most powerful bounty hunter in all the galaxies!" the alien cried out and stomped her feet. "And you're lucky to only be dealing with me! I might let you live!"

"I don't have or know what an energem is," Gia insisted. "Look, I'm a pirate. Sure, they're known to search for precious gems, but keys are more our things. Whatever you're looking for, you're in the wrong place. Give me back my morpher and I'll show you!"

"There's a high energy reading coming from this location!" the alien shouted. She held up Gia's morpher. "It's coming from this device! This energy registers as a new colour. One that the Rangers currently don't possess. If it's not an energem, what is it?"

"Give me my morpher and I'll show you!" Gia demanded. The alien looked down at the morpher, then over to Gia.

"Viviks, let her go," she commanded. Gia felt the Viviks release her arms and legs and then saw the alien holding out her morpher. She couldn't believe that had actually worked. She took her morpher back, morphed quickly, then charged the monster.

"Get out of my house!" she shouted and grabbed her blaster to fire at the alien. She struck her, in the heart, and sent her flying into the wall. As the alien took some time to get back to her feet, the Viviks once again surrounded Gia.

"I wish I had more keys," Gia muttered. She grabbed her sabre and struck down the Viviks in arm's reach, before shooting at the ones trying to get in closer. Just like X-Borgs, they feel quickly, but there were lots of them. Gia didn't let up. With her daughter, her nephew and her cub hiding out upstairs, she couldn't afford to lose this fight. But once the alien was back on her feet, Gia realized she was in trouble. The alien charged through the Viviks, taking them out as she made her way to Gia. The yellow Ranger tried firing at the monster, then slashing with her sabre, but nothing stopped her. Next thing Gia knew, she was sent flying through the front window and was out on her lawn. She looked up, shaking the cobwebs, and saw the alien coming for her again.

"Like Emma on steroids," she muttered and rolled out of the way as the alien kicked at her.

"I will get that energem, Ranger!" the alien shouted. Gia jumped up to her feet but was knocked backwards again by another blast. She was sent out to the street, where she landed on hers and Jordan's cruiser, where she was blasted again.

The cruiser blew up. Gia felt the heat and the force through the suit. It shot her high up in the air, where she powered down, before she started to fall. Gia braced herself for impact. She hit the ground hard.

"Poisandra always gets what she wants," the alien said cheerfully as she skipped over to Gia. She picked up the fallen morpher an investigated it again. "I guess I'll let Sledgey-pie decide if this is worth keeping or not."

Poisandra then looked down at Gia, "Hmm, as for you..."

Poisandra suddenly felt something hit her arm, and cried out painfully before she looked up. She saw the Dino Rangers rushing towards her and new her luck had run out.

"Later, losers!" she called out and disappeared before the Rangers could arrive.


	2. Koda vs Tiger

After chasing away Poisandra, the Dino Charge Rangers took Gia back inside the house. They had no idea who she was or what Poisandra could have wanted with her, but they figured they were better off sticking around, just in case Poisandra, or worse, Sledge or Fury returned.

Shelby and Riley tended to Gia while Tyler, Chase and Koda searched the house. They wanted to be sure the aliens were all gone and that no one else in the house needed help. The main floor was messy from the fight that had taken place, but seemed to be empty. Koda led the search upstairs, and heard some crying coming from behind a closed door. There was a child on the other side, maybe two by the sound of the cry. Instinct kicked in and the blue Ranger rushed to open the door so he could sooth the kids.

He didn't expect what he found on the other side. As soon as the door opened, a tiger lunged out at him, going for his throat. Koda caught the cat, sticking his arm in her mouth before she reached his neck, and then wrestled with the cat like he would the sabre-toothed ones back in his time. It would leave him with plenty of scars, but especially with modern medicine, he had a better chance of surviving if he put up a fight.

Tiger wasn't about to let up. Someone had attacked her mistress and she was determined to protect. She didn't know these strangers in her house, and Gia hadn't given her the all clear. She would protect her mistress and she would defend the babies at all costs.

She wasn't supposed to kill. Not without a direct command from Gia, or unless her life was in danger. Koda had his arm in her mouth. She could easily tear it up, but decided to let go instead. She didn't see any weapons on the intruders. Perhaps the fact that she was a tiger would be enough to scare them off. She noticed two of them seemed horrified by her presence. The third, the one she fought, seemed angry with her.

"Sabre-tooth," he growled, as though there was an old rivalry between them. So Tiger growled back. If he wanted to fight, she was ready.

"H-Hold up, mate," Chase put his hand on Koda's arm. "D-Don't piss off the cat."

"Babies," Koda pointed into the room, to Joe and Ciara. Tiger responded with a loud growl.

"It hasn't eaten them yet," Tyler said. "If we lure it into the other room..."

Tyler slowly reached into his back pocket, catching Tiger's attention. She watched as he pulled out a pen, and then suddenly a little red light appeared on the floor. Tiger looked to it, then up at Tyler, as though to ask if he thought she was stupid. Tyler moved the laser towards the other bedroom, but Tiger didn't follow.

"Well, that's not working," Chase said.

"Use force," Koda suggested and took in a deep breath. When he released it, he let out a loud roar. Tiger countered with one even louder. Koda huffed, clenched his fists and his teeth. By now, the babies were screaming. Someone needed to help them and he wouldn't let the overgrown cat deny them the comfort they needed.

"Out of way!" he demanded the cat and reached out to grab her by the back of the neck. Tiger twisted her head, pulled away, then swat at him with her paw. Koda caught her leg and pulled her forward. Tiger didn't anticipate his strength and hit the ground. Koda jumped over her and ran to the babies. He scooped up Ciara.

Now Tiger was pissed. She got back to all fours, roared again and pounced on Koda. She pinned him down, then grabbed Ciara by the back of her pants and gently lifted her away from Koda. She jumped up on the dresser near the crib and carefully put the little girl back before growling at the three men again. Koda got to his feet, ready to take back the kids when he suddenly relaxed.

"Mate, what are you waiting for?" Chase asked.

"Get the kids and run!" Tyler added. Koda looked Tiger in the eyes, then shook his head. He held up his hands in surrender.

"Cat not dangerous," he said.

"See the stripes, bro?" Chase said. "That's a tiger! You know, like the one that tried to eat your brother!"

"Actually, Tigers and sabre tooth cats..."

"Not now!" Chase interrupted Tyler with a shake of his head.

"Uh, boneheads," Koda said to Tiger as he gestured over his shoulder to the red and black Rangers. Then he pointed to himself. "Me Koda. Not hurt babies."

Tiger softened her growl, but still stood protectively over the crib. Koda pointed again to Chase and Tyler.

"They Koda's friends," he explained to the cat. "Not dangerous."

"Koda..."

"Tiger not dangerous," Koda explained to the others before he carefully moved in a little closer to the cat. When he was near her head, Tyler and Chase thought they heard him blow loudly on the cat's face.

"What the..."

Suddenly, Tiger responded, huffing back in Koda's face. He slowly reached up and pat her on the head.

"Gentle sabre tooth," Koda said, then turned to Chase and Tyler, "Defend babies. Just like Koda."

"She's protecting them?" Chase frowned. "That man-eater?"

"How do you know?" Tyler asked. Koda gestured to the cat's posture.

"Protect," he said. "These her babies."

"Uh, I know the talk was a little different back in the day," Chase shook his head. "But tigers can't have human babies. They just... can't."

"Trust," Koda asked the boys. He slowly reached into the crib to pick up Ciara again. Tiger let out a little growl and grabbed the little girl by the back of the pants. Koda moved to Joe and scooped the young boy in his arms. "Safe," he assured the cat. "Promise."

Tiger hopped down from the dresser and followed the boys downstairs, while keeping a close eye on Koda and Joe. When she saw Gia, she was filled with worry. Her mistress was on the couch, completely out of it and being tended to – or so Tiger hoped – by more strangers. Tiger growled with Ciara in her mouth and rushed over to Gia's side. She placed Ciara down on the floor, but kept the baby close while she looked over Gia for herself.

Riley and Shelby, at this point, were hiding on top of the furniture. Shelby had jumped to the top of the love seat and Riley had jumped on top of the overturned coffee table and held up a broken piece of the leg to protect himself.

"Relax," Koda told them. "Tiger is friend."

"That's a tiger!" Shelby cried out. "He's... he's..."

"She," Koda corrected. "She care for babies."

"And she's crying," Tyler pointed out, and moved in a little closer to the big cat when he heard what sounded like whines coming from her mouth instead of growls.

"No way," Chase said. "This chick actually owns a pet tiger!"

"Maybe Poisandra didn't do this," Riley suggested.

Tiger leaned in a little closer to Gia, nudging her side gently in the hopes she would wake up. When she didn't, Tiger really started to worry. She looked around to the strangers and Koda, desperate for their help at this point. They didn't know what to do, but fortunately, someone did. Tiger heard familiar voices from the driveway and rushed out of the house.

Just outside, Jordan and Emma had rushed home from their date night a little early when both felt struck by a sick feeling in their gut. They were glad they had listened to it as there was a strange jeep in their driveway, and Jordan was quick to notice the cruiser he and Gia shared had vanished.

Not to mention, the shattered window in the front of Gia and Jake's house and the broken door and frame. They hurried up the driveway and were met halfway by Tiger. The cat pounced gently, but desperately on Emma, then pulled her back up to her feet and raced her back into the house. Jordan followed closely, and the sight he saw inside made his blood boil. His partner was laid up on the couch. His niece alone on the floor and his son was in a stranger's arms.

"Hand him over," it was Jordan's turn to growl as he held out his arms. Koda looked down at Joe, then up at Jordan and slowly passed the young boy over. Once Jordan had his son safely in his arms, he held him tight in one hand and punched Koda across the face with the other. Koda stumbled backwards and cradled his face in his hands.

Emma hurried across the room, scooped Ciara up and then stood protectively in front of Gia as she glared at the five strangers in her best friend's home.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"We're here to help," Tyler insisted. Chase nodded his head.

"Yeah! We found her like this!"

"Found her?" Jordan frowned. "What does that mean? What did you do?"

"We didn't do anything," Riley promised and held up his hands. "There was..."

"A home invasion," Shelby jumped in. "Some guy was tearing the place up and got the best of your friend. We helped out, scared the guy off and..."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. He knew they were lying. He could read it on their faces thanks to his experience working in the Silver Guardians. Not only that, but Gia owned a tiger. Any home invader would quickly run the other way as soon as the cat showed her face.

Finally, the welcomed sound of police sirens filled the air. Jordan and Emma both knew who would be coming. Troy and Rebecca, Harwood's Silver Guardians, quickly rushed into the house. While Troy seemed baffled by what was going on, Rebecca stopped.

"Wait a minute..." she sniffed the air. "I remember that smell. Dirt, rocks, sweat... and heavy breathing... Caveman?"

"Bat Girl?" Koda tilted his head as he slowly recognized Rebecca from their accidental encounter in the Dino Lab.

"Offensive, but awesome," Rebecca smirked and grabbed Troy's arm. "Dude, that's Koda!"

"How do you know?"

"Because I can smell the cave on him from here," Rebecca tapped her nose then stomped on the ground to get his outline, but saw four more people in the room. "Rangers! New Zealand, are you here too?"

"Me?" Chase looked around as he pointed to himself, then he nodded, "Oh, wait, you're that blind chick that taught Koda to curse!"

"Dammit!" Koda nodded his head.

"You know these people?" Jordan frowned. Rebecca smiled.

"Ryan and I bumped into them when we went to the museum. Well, Koda and Chase. I don't know the other people here, but they're good guys, I'm sure of it."

"We are," Tyler nodded his head. "And we were serious about the home invasion. We didn't do this to your friend."

"Then who did?" Emma asked.

"Uh, that might be a little hard to explain," Riley said and scratched the back of his neck.

"Hard to explain because your freaky aliens did it? Or hard to explain like, you didn't really see the guy who did it?" Rebecca asked.

"Aliens?" Shelby frowned and tried to dismiss the idea. "Why would aliens...?"

"Don't you guys recognize the people you're talking to?" Rebecca asked and pointed to her brother. "Troy Burrows? Red Megaforce?"

"Megaforce?" Tyler shook his head.

Rebecca sighed. "Alright, what about her? Emma Goodall? Pink Megaforce?"

"Pink Mega what?" Shelby frowned.

Rebecca pinched the bridge of her nose, "Alright, Koda I'd understand. You mean none of you have heard of the Power Rangers? They saved the freaking planet like a year ago!"

"When the aliens invaded?" Riley asked. "I heard about that. Out on the farm we could see the skies filling up with something."

"We made international headlines," Jordan rolled his eyes. Finally, Shelby snapped her fingers and nodded.

"You are the Rangers! Red, pink and..." she looked to Gia, "Yellow!"

Then she turned to Jordan, "Uh... green, silver or blue?"

"Neither," Emma answered before Jordan could even pretend he had been a Ranger. He glared at her for a moment.

"So, now that you know they're Rangers, you can reveal you're Rangers," Rebecca said, then turned to her brother and rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, you'd think team-ups would go a little smoother."


	3. Aqua or Yellow?

"Kids are asleep," Emma announced as she made her way back downstairs. She wasn't completely comfortable with having the kids on the second floor of the house alone after an attack, but they were getting tired and fussy and it seemed there was Ranger business that needed to be done.

"Good," Jordan nodded then offered his wife a coffee. It was getting late into the night and it looked like they wouldn't be headed to bed soon. He turned to the Dino Charge Rangers, "So, you're saying the freak you saw attacking Gia was Poisandra?"

"Poisandra?" Emma frowned. "Wait, that heart-shaped balloon whack job I've seen on the news? She beat up Gia this badly?"

"Hey, she's stronger than she looks," Tyler shook his head. "Unfortunately, we're not clear on why she came this far out. Fury and Sledge want our energems and the five others we've yet to find."

"Unless Gia's got one," Shelby pointed out. "The Ankylozord was activated. Someone's bonded to the Aqua Energem. Who's to say it's not..."

"It's not Gia," Emma shook her head and looked to her best friend. "It can't be."

"Yeah, she can't get two turns," Rebecca huffed. "If anyone's going to bond with an energem, it should be me. Preferably an orange one."

"There is no orange," Riley said. Rebecca frowned.

"Well, what are my options?"

"You don't have options," Troy told her. "Look, Gia doesn't have an aqua or orange or any colour energem. We'd know if she did."

"So then why would Poisandra come here?" Chase asked. "Why break into a home with a freaking tiger if there isn't an energem nearby."

"Maybe Gia kept it hidden," Jordan suggested and looked to Emma with a little shrug. "I wouldn't know an energem if I saw one. She might have it and not even know it herself."

"Or, she knows, and she's hiding it from us," Troy said. Emma shook her head.

"She wouldn't do that!"

"Really?" Troy asked. "You remember what she was like in the spandex, right? Common sense never really applied to her."

"She's a mother now!" Emma said and pointed upstairs. "She wouldn't hide something this big from any of us if it could lead to Ciara being in danger."

"Maybe that's why she hid it," Jordan suggested. "She's carrying her morpher around. Maybe she knows she's got an energem, knows what it can do, but wanted to keep it quiet."

"Gia was probably the most relieved when the Ranger stuff was over," Rebecca agreed. "If she got roped back into it, she wouldn't be happy."

"Could be why the aqua Ranger never turned up," Riley surmised.

Emma shook her head and turned her attention to Tiger.

"You'd know if Gia had an energem. Tell them they're wrong. Tell them Gia wouldn't keep something like that from us. From me."

Tiger looked to Emma, then raced upstairs. When she came back down she put Gia's Silver Guardian's belt down on Emma's lap. The pink Ranger picked it up and examined it. The gun was missing and there was another empty pocket.

"Gia's morpher goes there," Jordan said. "She's been carrying it around at work since the Dino Ranger showed up. She insists she needs it in case the aliens come to Harwood. I told her that wasn't likely."

"And you were wrong once," Emma muttered. "Tiger, where is her morpher now?"

Tiger couldn't answer but did shift her attention back to Gia. Emma got up and started to look through Gia's pockets. She didn't find anything except some spare change.

"She used it to fight Poisandra, didn't she?" Emma asked. Tiger gave a little nod.

"Poisandra must have it, then," Troy concluded.

"If she's looking for energems, why would she take it?" Rebecca asked. "And if Gia used her old morpher, she'd have a pirate design, right? Don't the Dino Charge Rangers look like dinosaurs?"

"How would _you_ know that?" Chase asked. Rebecca sighed.

"Blind, not stupid. Why call yourselves Dino Charge if you don't look like dinosaurs?"

"Why call yourselves Megaforce when you look like pirates?" Chase countered. Rebecca thought about it for a moment before conceding.

"Point taken."

"Maybe Gia didn't morph into Megaforce," Jordan pondered a loud. "Maybe she used the aqua energem..."

"Gia doesn't have an energem," Emma shook her head. Jordan looked to his fiancée sympathetically.

"You and Gia share everything, I get it," he told her. "But maybe this isn't something she wanted to talk about. You remember what being a Ranger did to her."

"It's something she's glad happened, but wouldn't want to repeat," Emma nodded. "I know! But that doesn't mean she'd hide an energem from me... or Jake! We can call Jake and ask him if Gia's found anything unusual lately. I'll bet you a week's worth of diaper changes he agrees with me."

"Why would Poisandra go after someone who doesn't have something she wants?" Jordan asked. He walked over to his fiancée and took her hands softly. "Em, figuring out mysteries, it's my job. Sometimes, we don't get the answers we like. But we can't just assume Gia doesn't have an energem because you think you know better."

"When she wakes up, she'll tell you," Emma said. Jordan sighed.

"We don't know how long that'll be. And we don't know when Poisandra or any of the other aliens turn up."

"If Gia has an energem, and Poisandra got it, why would they come back?"

"To finish her off?" Jordan shrugged, and then was punched hard in the chest. He knew he should have seen that coming.

"We can take her to Keeper," Tyler suggested. "If Gia is bonded to any energem, he would know it."

"Keeper?" Troy frowned.

"He's the one who brought the energems to Earth," Chase answered. "He trusted them to the dinosaurs we're bonded to before they went extinct and the energems were lost for millions and millions of years."

"And Kendall help friend," Koda said and pointed to Gia. "Fix injuries."

"Yeah, maybe she can have a look at that arm too while she's at it," Chase suggested to Koda as he gestured to the cuts and scratches from the caveman's fight with Tiger. The big cat looked to Koda apologetically.

"Sweet! We're going back to the dino headquarters," Rebecca smiled and bounced excitedly. Troy put a hand on her shoulder.

"You're not. We are. You watch the kids."

"Nahuh," Rebecca shook her head. "What if Emma's right, and Gia's not bonded to an energem. What if Poisandra thought it was Gia, but realizes it's one of the babies."

Rebecca couldn't see it, but Jordan, Emma, and Tiger were all glaring at her harshly. She did sense the growing tension from her friends. "What? I'm not saying they were! I'm saying she's an evil alien, and they don't discriminate with age. Poisandra showed up here because she thought someone in this house bonded. If she knows the kids are here, and figures out it's not Gia she's after, she might attack them. Knowing that, Emma and Jordan aren't going to want to leave the babies behind."

Rebecca smirked when she knew Troy was giving her a glare. She knew she was right about the possibility, and she knew her brother was angry with her for bringing it up. Now there was nothing keeping her from tagging along. She grinned in his direction. "Can't stop me Rangering now, can you?"

"I never should have let you get wrapped up in all this," Troy shook his head and sighed. "It was better when I was just lying to you all the time."

"Let's head back to the museum," Chase stated. "Before Poisandra or anyone else decides to turn up and wreck the place."

"I'll get the car seats," Jordan sighed.

"I'll get the babies," Emma said.


	4. Defending Family

The first thing to come to Gia as she started to wake was the sound of crying. She couldn't quite make it out at first but the longer she listened the better she was able to figure it out. In a panic she tried to sit up.

"Ciara!"

"Whoa..." Gia heard Troy say as he put his hands on her shoulders to hold her down. She couldn't fight him back. Her whole body was in pain. Even just his touch felt like cinderblock weighing her down. "Not too fast. You took a pretty bad hit."

Gia knew it had to be true, but couldn't remember how it happened. Slowly, and with Troy's help, she managed to sit up. She glanced around the unfamiliar room until her eyes settled on Ciara and Emma. Gia breathed a sigh of relief to see her daughter was in safe hands.

"Where are we?"

"Dino Lab," Troy said and pointed to the group of strangers working around a desk and computer. "Those are the Dino Charge Rangers and their mentors."

"You see the big alien too, right?"

"That's Keeper," Troy nodded. He looked to Gia, "What do you know about energems?"

"About what?"

"Dino Charge found you in a losing battle against Poisandra. You know, the heart shaped balloon."

"Yeah, I... kind of?"

"They think she attacked you because she was looking for an energem," Troy said. He looked to Gia worriedly, "You don't have one, do you?"

He pointed to the wall, where the Dino Ranger's energems were floating so Gia knew what he meant. She looked over, then shook her head.

"I've never seen one before," she frowned. "But... that does sound familiar."

"You know what they are?"

"No," Gia shook her head. "But Poisandra... she was looking for one. I think she was convinced I had one."

"Why would she think that?" Troy asked her. Gia shrugged her shoulders.

"Beats me," Gia tried to stand up but her legs felt too weak to support her weight. Troy wrapped his arm around her and helped her up to her feet. He walked her over to Emma and Ciara so the former yellow Ranger could finally sooth her daughter.

"She's just worried about you," Emma explained. "I've fed her, changed her, everything. She'll settle now that you're up."

"Thanks," Gia whispered and held her daughter close before she turned to the new Rangers, "And I guess I owe you all a big thank you. Seems your ballooned lunatic has a lot more bite than bark."

"We're just glad you're okay," Tyler gave her a little nod before he offered his hand. "I'm Tyler. That's Koda, Shelby, Chase, Riley, Kendall and Keeper. We're the new team."

"I heard," Gia nodded. "Do you guys have any idea why your big bad alien decided to go after me?"

"Potentially," Keeper nodded his head. "Sixty-five million years ago..."

"Whoa, whoa, stop," Rebecca frowned deeply as she interrupted the alien. "That's when you came here?"

"My species live a long time," Keeper assured her.

"Yeah, I don't care about that," Rebecca shook her head. "Dr. Oliver was kind of my main teacher in high school and he knew a lot about dinosaurs. For science class at the end of the year, he taught me about some of the more popular dinosaurs and I know for a fact stegosaurus and the T-Rex didn't live at the same time at all! In fact, the T-Rex is closer to us than to the stegosaurus."

Rebecca made her way over to Tyler and Koda, "So how did you get energems to bond with both these dinosaurs if you've visited Earth once after the stegosaurus died out?"

"There is still a lot of the ancient world your kind has yet to discover," Keeper told Rebecca and was about to continue with his story when Kendall interrupted him.

"Actually, I've been pondering the same question since we've met," she said. "Many on the creatures you claim the energems have bonded with did live around the time you stated you arrived on Earth, but the gap between the stegosaurus and the rest of the animals is just way too large. Scientifically speaking, it would have been impossible for you to arrive on Earth at the time you did and find a stegosaurus."

"Trust me, Rangers, there is a lot you've yet to learn about life," Keeper said. Rebecca sighed loudly and shook her head.

"I don't know. I'm asking Noah about this later. You seem fishy."

"Can I..."

"Hold up," Kendall interrupted Keeper again. "Are you saying everything I've studied, everything I know about the history of life is wrong?"

"Kendall, I..."

"That all my research, all my time I've spent studying fossils is incorrect?"

"Uh oh," Koda whispered and looked to the others. "Kendall not like being proven wrong."

"Kendall, that is not what I said," Keeper told her. "I'm just saying there is still much to be learned. You know better than anyone that your work is just speculation. Without being there, there is no way to definitely prove..."

"I've got a mountain of data to prove the stegosaurus and the T-Rex lived very far apart chronologically," Kendall said.

"Can we talk about this later?" Keeper sighed. "Right now, I believe we have more pressing issues to deal with?"

"Yeah, like why Poisandra attacked Gia if she doesn't have an energem," Emma said.

"Or even know what one is," Gia added. "Look, I hate aliens and they tend to hate me. No offence, Keeper. But there is no reason why Poisandra should have invaded my home. I don't have anything she could want. In fact, I'm not even sure why she took my morpher."

"Your morpher?" Kendall frowned. "You still have your morpher?"

"Tensou repaired it for me," Gia nodded. "I keep it on me now that the aliens are attacking Earth again."

"Well, where is it?" Kendall asked. "I can analyze the signals it gives off. Maybe Poisandra confused the energy of your morpher with the energems."

"I... uh... don't have it," Gia said softly and her friends all groaned. "I had it on me when Poisandra attacked. But then she blew up the cruiser..."

"Which I am not paying for," Jordan cut in. Gia glared at him before she continued.

"I powered down. My morpher fell out of my hands and she took it. That's the last thing I remember before waking up here."

"We showed up just after that," Chase pointed out and then turned to Kendall. "You might be right. Poisandra must have thought it was an energem."

"But how would she confuse a morpher for an energem?" Shelby asked. Keeper spoke up again.

"Poisandra's never seen the energems for herself. Sledge barely got a glance. He heard of their powers and started his search. When he found out the energems were in my possession, he started his pursuit of me. They might know the energems contain a lot of power, but not the type of power."

"So, they would just be looking for anything that gives off a strong energy reading," Kendall pointed out. "If they have no energems to speak of, they wouldn't be able to narrow down the search. They would go after anything."

"I do remember Poisandra mentioning something about colour," Gia said.

"You're yellow, right?" Kendall asked, to which Gia nodded. "Poisandra must have picked up the strong energy readings from your active morpher, used those readings to figure out the colour of your suit, and then because it's not one of the colours she's seen with our Rangers, decided to come after you, hoping that meant you possessed an energem we didn't yet have."

"So, Gia was targeted because this team doesn't have a yellow Ranger?" Emma asked.

"I can't catch a break," Gia muttered.

"What about Orion?" Rebecca asked. "If Poisandra's going after colours that aren't on the Dino Team, isn't Orion in trouble. Unless you guys got a new silver Ranger no one's told me about."

"Hopefully, Sledge and Poisandra figure out the morpher's not an energem," Kendall said. "If they do, your friend should be safe."

"And in the meantime?" Gia asked. "I kind of would like my morpher back. In case you haven't figured it out, aliens don't tend to like me very much and I've got a family to look after."

Gia hugged Ciara a little closer to her chest, "Poisandra only didn't go after the kids because she thought she got what she wanted. If she finds out the morpher isn't an energem, she might come after me again to find it."

"You want to go after a morpher?" Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"I want a way to protect my family in case a home invasion happens again," Gia nodded. "Please tell me there's something we can do."

"Aside from getting on Sledge's ship and having a peek around, there's nothing I can suggest," Kendall shook her head.

"So we go up on his ship."

"That's far too dangerous," Kendall said and Jordan couldn't help but cut in.

"I kind of agree with her. Gia, Emma's still got her Megaforce morpher. You and Ciara can stay with us until Jake gets back."

"So I just sit around helplessly?" Gia frowned. "I appreciate the offer, Jordan, but you didn't fight Poisandra. I was in Super Megaforce and I got my ass kicked. Emma's Megaforce Morpher isn't going to cut it, especially alone."

"I don't mind staying over," Troy suggested. "Your place is closer to work and two Megaforce Morphers are better than one."

"Seriously?" Gia frowned. "You're all against me on this?"

"Sledge is a very powerful bounty hunter," Keeper nodded his head. "No one has ever been able to escape him. If we let you go up on his ship, you're likely never to return."

"You'll be lucky if he decides to kill you," Kendall agreed. "Look, I understand the importance of a morpher. Believe me, I wouldn't suggest any of my Rangers go anywhere without theirs..."

"Yet you're telling me to take my daughter and my cub home, knowing this Sledge guy and his crazy heart-shaped girlfriend have made me a target once already?"

"You'll be under the protection of your team," Kendall said. "If memory serves, you've got five teammates who can look after you until Poisandra decides to go after something else."

Gia glared angrily at Kendall, then the Dino Charge Rangers, who had nothing to say on the matter, then her friends, who all seemed to agree with Kendall.

"Fine, then," Gia muttered and put Ciara in Emma's arms. "You watch her."

"Where are you going?" Emma asked.

"If there's a chance Poisandra's coming after me again and I'm helpless to stop her, I don't want Ciara or Tiger getting caught up in this mess."

"Gia, we've got our Gosei morphers. We'll protect you."

Gia shook her head, commanded Tiger stay with Emma and Jordan, then found her way out of the Dino Lab. Emma sighed loudly as she passed Ciara off to Jordan and then took after Gia.

"Even I saw that coming," Rebecca muttered. "Come on, no one else considered Gia might just take off of her own?"

Jordan looked down at his niece, then with a heavy sigh he turned to Kendall, "There's got to be something we can do to take the heat off Gia. Can't you make a fake energem or something?"

"A fake energem?" Kendall frowned.

"Something that'll get Poisandra to leave Gia alone?"

"Gia's not the kind to enjoy being protected," Rebecca added with a nod. "She likes knowing she can look after herself. If we can't get her morpher back, we've got to do something so she doesn't feel threatened."

"Maybe that's not a bad idea," Chase suggested to Kendall. She shook her head.

"If I make a fake energem, we'll validate Poisandra's belief that there's a yellow one out there, and that's it's already bonded to someone. If Sledge and Poisandra get their hands on it, they're going to want to kill whomever they believe it's bonded to."

"What if they find out it's not bonded to Gia?" Rebecca asked with a little smirk. Kendall seemed intrigued. Troy pulled his sister back.

"You're not getting caught up in this."

"What if you make a yellow energem and a yellow dino suit?" Rebecca suggested.

"You think I can just create a Ranger suit?"

"It doesn't have to be perfect. If Poisandra thinks the yellow energem can bond with a pirate, she might believe any yellow spandex means energem."

"Rebecca, if you're doing what I think you're doing..."

"I'm taking the heat off Gia," Rebecca told her brother. "A new yellow Ranger shows up with an energem, and gets Gia off the hook. Once we do that, I'll leave the suit and the fake energem with Kendall and her team, where it's safe. The aliens never have to know it's me."

"But what if they find out?" Troy asked.

"Are you saying you can't protect me?" Rebecca smirked. "Gia's got issues."

"Gia's past them," Jordan said. "Ever since Cliff died..."

"She's doing better," Rebecca corrected Jordan. "But she's never going to want to go back to feeling helpless, especially when Ciara's in trouble too."

"Rebecca, I work with Gia every day. If there were still issues, I'd know about it."

"Really?" Rebecca frowned. "Because I work with Troy every day and he doesn't know that sometimes I cry myself to sleep."

"You do?" Troy asked and turned to his sister. She nodded.

"Some things you learn to cope with, but you never completely get over," Rebecca said. "If Gia feels better knowing she can protect herself and her family in trouble, then that's what I want to do for her. You know she wishes a better life for Ciara. And I guarantee, if anything happens to Ciara, or Joe, or Tiger, or any of us, and Gia was helpless to stop it, she'll be right back at square one."

Rebecca turned in Kendall's direction, "So, about that fake Ranger suit and energem?"

"I'm on it," Kendall promised.


	5. Planned Recklessness

After Gia stormed out of the Dino Lab, Emma followed her. If her best friend was still a target for the aliens, Emma didn't want her to be alone for too long. She had already been attacked once – if it happened a second time, she might not be lucky enough to survive.

But more than that, Gia was upset. Emma couldn't let her best friend head out alone when she was hurting. She caught up to Gia just across the street from the museum and the two sat down on a bus bench.

"I'm not letting any monsters get their hands on Ciara," Emma promised. "If we just head home, Ciara's gonna be safe, I swear."

"You swear nothing," Gia shook her head.

"Gia, I..."

"I'm not going to sit back. I'm not going to be made to feel weak again by these stupid aliens."

"You're not weak."

"I will be if Poisandra comes back and I've got no powers," Gia said. "Without my morpher, the only thing I can think of doing to keep Ciara safe is leave her here while I head home. And I know those kids are Rangers and I should be able to trust them with her but... I'm not leaving her."

"No one's asking you to."

"But you're all asking me to take her home and throw her in the line of danger."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to her," Emma insisted. "You know that!"

"And who is going to stop something happening to you?" Gia asked. "I faced Poisandra today, and if that's how strong the cartoon alien can be, I don't want to know what the armoured covered brute can do if he shows up."

"We've beaten brutes before."

"I want my morpher back. I want to say I did everything I could to protect my family should those freaks attack us again. I want to be the one standing between the monsters and my daughter. I want to control who gets close to her. I don't want to feel helpless."

Emma sighed as she turned to her best friend with a sympathetic look. It took her a moment to find the words she never thought she would have to utter again.

"It's about Cliff, isn't it?"

Gia lowered her head. Emma moved in closer.

"You don't want to make the same mistake your parents did."

"They didn't make a mistake," Gia growled in her parents' defence. Emma knew she had to reword herself.

"I mean, you don't want to let something slip past you like they did," she said. "You don't want Ciara to hurt like you did."

I know it's stupid," Gia whispered. "She's just a baby and Sledge, Poisandra, any alien... they aren't going to want her like Cliff wanted me."

"It's not stupid," Emma shook her head, then pulled out her morpher and looked down at it, "I guess, I feel the same with Joe. It's easier for me to tell you everything's going to be fine when I've got a morpher in my hand. Just like how it was easier for me to tell you to break up with Cliff than it was for you to actually go through with it."

"It's irrational. Cliff is dead and Ciara's so many years away from dating. I shouldn't be worried about this. But if Cliff could slip past my parents for so long, and I could feel so miserable... who's to say it won't happen again with her?" Gia asked. "At the very least, against humans, I'm a Silver Guardian. I carry a gun, I know how to kick ass. Her first date won't know what hit him if he even looks at her funny. But monsters?"

"Like Vrak?"

"If I have my morpher, nothing's getting close to her. Humans won't even think about it and I can hold off aliens. I know it. Without it, and with those freaks coming after me, I can't help but think, if Ciara's anywhere near me, they're going to hurt her. They'll hurt her all for an energem I won't have. Without anything to trade them, and without a way to stop them... they'll kill her."

"You're imagining the worst. Ciara's just a baby. She can't do anything for them..."

"Except tear my heart in two," Gia whispered. Emma put her arms around her best friend.

"You really think a morpher's going to keep her safe?" she asked. Gia nodded her head.

"It's my best shot."

"Ciara, Joe, and Tiger are in the Dino Lab with Jordan. They're safe for now. If you promise we bail if it gets too dangerous... I'll go with you to Sledge's ship."

"Seriously?" Gia asked. Emma nodded.

"If it'll make you feel better," she answered. "And, if the aliens are going to try and come after you, it's better to fight them on their ship, away from the kids, than to draw them in closer. I prefer keeping the kids as far away from violence as possible."

"You normally yell at me for even thinking up these crazy, reckless plans."

"I'll leave the yelling to the others this time," Emma smiled. "Besides, can I convince you otherwise?"

"No."

"Would you go up on your own anyways?"

"Duh."

"So your odds are better if I just tag along than if I try to tell you no," Emma chuckled. "We both know you don't really listen to people anyways."

"So how do we get up?" Gia asked. Emma looked around, then picked up a rock from the dirt of a nearby bush.

"We get them to take us there," Emma smirked then handed the rock to Gia, "And don't forget your energem."

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion. The girls were thrown from the bus bench and onto the streets. When they looked up, they saw Poisandra and Sledge.

"So you did have it," Poisandra growled.

"Viviks!" Sledge shouted. "Grab them!"

-Dino-Charge-

Kendall was busy trying to create a false energem when suddenly the alarm went off, interrupting her work. The Rangers all gathered around her to have a look as she pulled up a screen showing Sledge and Poisandra.

"That's just outside," Tyler remarked as he leaned in to get a closer look.

"And they're taking the girls!" Jordan cried out. Troy didn't need to be told twice as he raced off, morphing as he went. The Dino Charge Rangers were right behind him but as soon as they were outside, all signs of trouble were gone. Tyler picked up his Dino Com.

"Kendall, anything?"

"They just... vanished."

"Vanished?" Troy frowned. "They were literally just here. How could they vanish?"

"Sledge must have gotten what he wanted," Kendall stated. "Get back to base, now. We'll figure something out."

Troy shook his head and looked to the new team, "Something's not right."

"I don't know," Chase said. "Sledge is pretty tough."

"But the girls shouldn't have gone down this fast," Troy had a quick look around, hoping to find his team teammates somewhere, but there was no sign of them. "They're stronger than that."

"With only one morpher?" Shelby asked. "Look, we've fought Sledge before. Even with our powers, we got our asses handed to us. His powers are crazy!"

"And Gia's crazier," Troy said. Suddenly, Jordan's voice was heard over the Dino Com.

"You don't think she's reverted to old Gia, do you?" he asked.

"And you think Emma would go along with it?" Troy frowned.

"Get back to base," Kendall interrupted. "We'll figure it out down here. Before Sledge decides to try something else."

Troy powered down and sighed loudly as he followed the Dino Charge Rangers to their base. When he was back, he saw Jordan pacing nervously, with a restless Ciara in his arms. The Silver Guardian was shaking his head.

"She wouldn't leave. Emma would have talked her out of it. I mean, if taking care of Ciara is top priority then she wouldn't do anything stupid to jeopardize that, right?"

Jordan looked straight to Troy. The red Ranger shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess, our only hope right now is getting that fake energem up and ready," Riley said and looked to Kendall. "Any progress on that?"

"It's slow," she said. "Hopefully the girls know what they're doing, if this was their plan. It might take me all night."

"Just, hurry up," Jordan begged her, after which, Ciara started to cry. Hearing his cousin, Joe looked around, felt something was off and started to cry out too.

-Dino-Charge-

Jake was just stepping out of the shower in his hotel room after a long day of practice. He loved playing soccer for a living. He loved getting paid really good money to follow his passion. While it did take him away from his family for a few months a year, it made him much happier than any boring office job. And with modern day technology, keeping in touch with his fiancée and his growing daughter was easy. He still got to read Ciara stories before bed and watch her fall asleep to the sound of his voice.

He finished his shower and thought of trying to start a video chat with Gia and Ciara when he heard a knock on his door. His roommate was still out of the field, training well into the night because he had misplayed the ball in their last game and the coach wasn't about to let that mistake happened again. He wouldn't be home for another hour, which was why Jake thought now would be the perfect time to talk to his family. So the knock was a little unusual. He checked through the peek hole, saw it was another teammate and opened the door.

"What's up?" he asked. His teammate handed him his IPad.

"I was browsing through twitter when I saw this was trending. You said your family was in Harwood, right?"

Jake nodded his head and checked the link his teammate was showing him. He frowned deeply.

"Why does that look like my house?"

"There's not a lot of info yet," his teammate explained. "All this says was that a freaky monster attacked outside of Amber Beach. Everyone's speculating it was targeted, but people are freaking out."

"This looks exactly like my house," Jake frowned. "Why is the place trashed?"

"Dude, I don't know. I just thought maybe you ought to check in with your fiancée," his teammate suggested. Jake nodded his head, raced to his laptop and made the call to his fiancée. He waited a couple of minutes but got no reply. His stomach turned. He grabbed his phone. Maybe Gia was just out for the night visiting her mothers. He called but there was still no answer.

"Call Noah, ask if he's heard from Gia," Jake handed his phone to his teammate, then stole his. He was desperate to hear from his fiancée and needed to get in touch with as many people as possible. He thought having his teammate help would cover more ground quickly. He dialled Emma's number, but got no answer. They must have been out together. He needed to believe that, otherwise he would lose his mind.

And if they were out together, they probably were visiting the mothers. He called Vanessa, but she said she hadn't heard from Gia since before news of the attack. She was worried too but hadn't yet tried reaching Gia because Ryan had been sick all day. Jake felt badly for worrying her further, but now knew something was wrong. Suddenly, his teammate offered him his phone back.

"Your buddy says Rebecca cut a date short because of the attack. Silver Guardians were called in to investigate and she hasn't been home since."

"Silver Guardians?" Jake frowned. "Why would a Silver Guardian have to call another Silver Guardian team... unless..."

Jake didn't want to think about it. He didn't even want to imagine any of this was true. It had to be a prank. Aliens wouldn't target Gia. All the ones that did have something against her had been killed before or during the Legendary Battle.

But Gia wouldn't answer her video chat or cell phone. Emma's phone was going straight to voicemail and Vanessa had no idea where the girls were or what had happened. He used his phone one last time to call Jordan.

"I guess you heard, huh?" Jordan answered the call.

"Please tell me everyone's safe," Jake asked, then could hear crying in the background that sounded a lot like his daughter. "Ciara..."

"She's with me. She's safe. So are Joe and Tiger," Jordan assured him.

"And where are you guys?"

"Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum," Jordan explained. "We're in the lab below it. With the Dino Charge Rangers."

"Rangers? Why are you with Rangers? Why is Ciara crying and why won't Gia answer her phone?"

"You might want to come home," was all Jordan said. Jake gave a nod, promised he'd be on the first flight to Amber Beach and rushed out of his hotel room. His teammate raced after him, catching him just in front of the elevator.

"You're bailing in the middle of the tournament?"

"Tell the coach it's an emergency."

"You know what the coach is like!" his teammate frowned. "Soccer comes first during the season. Unless someone's dying..."

"Yeah, that," Jake nodded. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. He stepped in. His teammate put his foot in the way to stop the doors closing again.

"You serious?"

"I can't reach my fiancée and her partner seems worried. He asked me to get home. I'm afraid if I don't..."

"Alright, I'll tell coach," his teammate nodded. "I'll show him the newsfeed. Remind him you were a Ranger and stuff. He'll get it... I hope."

"He's going to have to," Jake said. "I only tell him soccer is top priority so he doesn't bench me."

"Don't we all," his teammate chuckled. "Just, make sure you come back in one piece and ready for some serious drills."


	6. A Royal Return

Kendall worked well into the night to create a fake energem that would look real enough to fool Sledge. She also needed to get to work on creating a Ranger suit that would go along with it. Rebecca had volunteered to act as the yellow Dino Ranger in an effort to get Poisandra off Gia's trail to keep her teammates and the kids safe from danger. It was a noble sacrifice – as there was a risk Sledge found out who was behind the new yellow mask. Kendall had to admire just how much the Megaforce team seemed to care for each other.

But that wasn't what stuck out to her most. While the Rangers slept in various corners of the lab, hoping that there would be good news when they woke up in the morning, Kendall was busy at work. However, she wasn't the only one up. Laying in her car seat, guarded by Tiger and unable to sleep was Ciara. She seemed to be watching Kendall work; as though she knew Kendall was her mother's only hope.

"_I've got a family to look after,"_ Kendall remembered Gia telling her, and honestly couldn't remember the last time those words had been uttered in her presence. Of course, she knew parents generally cared for their children. She knew parents often put the needs of their children before their own. But she had never witnessed it before. Her parents certainly wouldn't have gone to such lengths for her. Her father had abandoned her. Her mother... her suicide was a different form of abandonment. Growing up, Kendall often wished her mother had been one of the real crazy parents, who had murdered her before taking her own life. It would have been a horrible way to die, and now that she was settled in a life of her own, she was glad her mother hadn't gone to such lengths, but she couldn't deny the thought had crossed her mind often while in the care of her foster family.

Kendall had discouraged Gia doing anything to get her morpher back. In a way, she had also discouraged Gia protecting her child. Yet, it seemed the yellow Ranger wouldn't listen to any voice but her own. Kendall wasn't sure what had happened, but it couldn't be a coincidence that the mother was gone after voicing her desperation to protect her daughter.

"What's it like?" Kendall whispered to Ciara. The little girl reached out to her, as if she wanted to be in her arms. Kendall had some work to do and didn't think she could juggle both the baby and the fake energem, but she felt her feet moving her towards Ciara. She undid the straps and lifted the little girl up. She brought her over to the work station and showed her the energem being built. "Hopefully, this works, and Sledge will believe the energem's bonded with the yellow Dino Ranger. As long as her identity stays a mystery, your family should be safe from trouble."

Just then, a video screen popped up of a figure trying to break into the museum. It seemed human. Kendall held Ciara a little tighter in her arms and made her way to the elevator. Then she walked to the front entrance, where the glass doors seemed to do little to keep the intruder out. He made his way inside before Kendall could stop him. She was about to shout that she had already called the police, hoping to scare him away, but Ciara suddenly grew very excited. It was almost like she knew the intruder.

"Thank goodness," the intruder breathed a sigh of relief and reached for Ciara. Kendall instinctively turned away, putting her body between the intruder and the baby.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked. He pointed.

"Ciara's father. Who are you? And why are you holding my kid?"

"She wasn't sleeping," Kendall explained, and seeing Ciara looked really happy the intruder was before her, she passed the little girl over. "I thought I'd show her the work I'm doing to get her mother back."

"Back? What happened to Gia?"

"You're her fiancé, I take it?" Kendall asked. The intruder nodded his head.

"Jake Holling. Jordan said to meet him and... his friends here."

"The Rangers," Kendall said. "They're sleeping in my lab. I've been up all night creating a suit that would hopefully get Poisandra's sights off your fiancée."

"Why were they on her in the first place?" Jake asked, then examined his daughter carefully. "Is everyone okay?"

"The kids are fine. And your friends Jordan, Troy and Rebecca are safe as well."

"So, Gia and Emma, then? What happened to them?"

"Poisandra picked up an energy signal she thought belonged to the yellow Energem. Those are powerful stones that I'm trying to locate to keep out of the wrong hands. My Rangers possess five of them, and there are still five more waiting to be found."

"And this... poison guy, thinks Gia might have one?"

"Poisandra, and she's mistaken. There is no yellow."

"So then why does she think there is? Why is she going after Gia?"

"Gia's morpher must give off similar energy readings to the energems. Sledge knows the energems vary in colour. Poisandra must have seen the yellow and thought it was a new energem to grab. So she attacked your fiancée. My team arrived in time to scare her off, but not in time to stop her taking Gia's morpher. We brought your fiancée and your friends back here to figure out this mess, but Gia and Emma..."

"Gia took off, and Emma went after her?"

"You know what happened?"

"I just know my fiancée," Jake sighed. "So, where are these new Rangers, again?"

"I'll take you down," Kendall said and led the way. As she did, she glanced over her shoulder for a brief second and saw Jake cuddling sweetly with his daughter. Kendall faced forward again and felt something tugging on her heart.

-Dino-Charge-

"Your reckless plans always start like this, right?" Emma asked as she watched Gia bang on the bars of her cell. They had let Sledge and Poisandra take them on their ship, knowing it would get them closer to Gia's morpher, but hadn't expected Sledge to have a real prison on his ship. It was full of monsters trying to get out, and none of the succeeding. Gia had made a few attempts herself, only to be blasted into the back wall when she got too close to her goal.

"If by that you mean I start off regretting them once things don't go exactly as planned, then yes," Gia nodded her head. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Great. So we're on track, then?"

"Barely," Gia nodded. She looked across to the other cell, where three monsters were packed in tight. As a few guards walked by, they shouted, demanding release. The guards paid no attention.

"Who do you think is worse?" Emma asked. "This Sledge guy, or Vrak and Vekar?"

"So far, still Vrak," Gia muttered. She saw there was a little opening under the cell door. These prisons were made to hold big monsters, so there seemed to be plenty of room to slip out. But Gia had already learned the hard way that the door was guarded by some invisible force that kept her going between the bars. Maybe there was nothing underneath. After all, it seemed way too small for any monster to even consider slipping out.

"This is going to kill you," Emma warned her as Gia lowered herself to the ground.

"I've got to try," Gia started to pull herself through, but stopped when big, armoured boots stepped right in front of her. She looked up, seeing Sledge. She tried to retreat back into her cell, but Sledge grabbed her by the back of the shirt and pulled her out.

"That energem you gave us was just a stone!" he shouted and threw her down the hallway. Emma rushed to the front of the cell and saw Gia slowly picking herself up.

"Gia..."

"I'm fine. Step two, ass-kicking. Still on track," Gia assured her. Sledge stomped over.

"You better tell us where you're hiding the real energem," he growled.

"I swear, it's the stone," Gia said. Sledge grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off her feet. Gia grabbed his arms and pulled herself up, taking some of her weight off her neck so she could breathe a little bit. "Take me to the stone. With my morpher, I can reveal the energem."

Emma gulped and hoped Sledge would fall for it. Once he gave Gia her morpher, they could make a run for it back to the Dino Lab, where hopefully the others would have a plan to help.

"Why should we believe you this time?" Sledge growled. "You've deceived us twice!"

"This time, I'm telling the truth," Gia muttered. "Emma, tell them."

"Emma?" Sledge frowned. He dropped Gia and turned to the cell to glare at the former pink Ranger. Emma backed off as he seemed to inspect her. "You're not... you can't be..."

"I'm what?" Emma asked.

Sledge frowned, turned around to pick Gia up then threw her back into the cell before he stormed off. When he came back, he brought one of his generals with him.

"Her name's Emma," he said to the monster in blue. "I didn't think it was her at first, but that name..."

"I'll look into it," the monster in blue nodded his head before he hurried off. Sledge gave Emma one final look before he walked off. On his way out, Emma and Gia heard him mutter.

"I thought the Armada was destroyed..."

The girls looked to each other curiously. Gia frowned.

"What did you do?"

"Me?" Emma pointed to herself then shook her head. "What did you do? He reacted after you said my name."

"I called you Emma," Gia said. "What else should I have called you? If you wanted codenames, you should have said something before we got kidnapped."

Emma shook her head, then pointed to the door, "You can slip out. Maybe while he's distracted, we can make a run for your morpher?"

"Sounds like a plan," Gia said and pulled herself under the door first. She stood lookout for Emma while the pink Ranger slipped through. Suddenly, all the other prisoners were calling out about their escape. The girls knew they didn't have much time.

"Tattle tales," Gia whispered and pulled Emma through the door before her best friend was even on her feet. They slammed the door shut behind them and saw the hallway split off in many directions.

"Which way?" Emma asked.

"You go..."

"This plan is stupid enough without us splitting up," Emma shook her head. "We stick together. No buts."

"Fine," Gia muttered then pointed to hallway on the furthest right. "This way."

At the end of their chosen hallway, the girls found themselves inside a room. Emma shut the door behind them, hoping it would give them more time to come up with a better plan to find the missing morpher. Gia tried to look around for a map or blueprints or even a new exit, but there was nothing useful to be found.

"What do you think he uses this place for?" Emma asked her. Gia shrugged her shoulders and opened up a box. Before she could get a look inside she heard a voice. She turned around and saw Sledge standing by the door.

"Shit," she muttered and moved in closer to Emma. Suddenly, Sledge kneeled and lowered his head.

"My Queen."

The girls looked to each other then back to Sledge. They lowered their guard slightly in their confusion.

"Queen?" Gia asked. Sledge looked up then pointed to Emma.

"Are you not Emma, wife of Prince Vekar and heir to the Armada Empire?"

Gia choked back a little laugh. Emma's jaw hit the floor.

"That again?"

"Go along with it," Gia whispered. "Maybe this could work in our favour."

"But I hate Princess Emma," Emma whispered back. "In case you don't remember, she's the reason your heart is robotic."

"And she might be the reason we get my morpher back and get off this ship safely," Gia said. She pushed Emma forward. "She is."

"We thought the whole Armada was destroyed," Sledge said.

Emma frowned. "It... was? I mean, it was."

"I apologize for this misunderstanding," Sledge said. "You may leave, after I collect my bounty."

"Bounty?" Emma frowned. Sledge nodded his head before he pointed down the hallway where they had come.

"I've captured every traitor you requested," he started to walk back to the prisons. Gia and Emma weren't sure they wanted to follow, but they did to keep from pissing him off. If he believed Emma was the newest Queen of the Armada Empire, and he was to serve her, maybe their plan could go a lot smoother. Once they reached the prison, Sledge led them to what appeared to be a well overstuffed cell. Dozens of monsters were crammed inside, begging for their release. Sledge pointed to them.

"The former king requested these traitors be brought back alive."

"Former King? You mean Vekar?"

"Her husband?" Gia added, just to tease. She was nudged hard in the ribs for it by Emma.

"Vekar? No. He was just a little boy when his father put the bounty on their heads," Sledge said. "I've been holding onto these monsters for a long time to claim the bounty I was promised for their return."

Sledge held out his hand, "I get my payment, you get these prisoners and your freedom."

"Payment?" Emma frowned and then reached into her pocket. It wasn't that she wanted to let monsters roam free, especially if Sledge was promising to release them to her. It meant they would be placed on Earth, which could cause a lot of trouble for the Rangers and the planet. But she liked hearing Sledge would offer her her freedom. It would be her ticket out.

"Wait, that's not everything," Gia added in. "Emma's father in-law may have put in the request, but you're talking to the Queen now. She's got one more demand."

Sledge growled at Gia, then turned to Emma. The former pink Ranger frowned.

"I do?" she asked Gia.

"My morpher," Gia whispered. Emma nodded.

"My friend's morpher."

"And what will you give me in exchange?" Sledge asked. "The bounty covers the work I put into capturing all these prisoners. You want more, I demand payment."

"What kind of payment do you need?"

"For the prisoners, it was agreed I would take a hundred of the king's precious stones. Per head.

"Uh..." Emma looked inside the cell. She had no idea what those stones were, or where to get them. Not that she wanted to release the prisoners, but she also didn't want to upset Sledge.

"And for the morpher?"

"The yellow Energem," Sledge smirked and looked to Gia. "Hand it over."


	7. Joyride

It had been a long night, but Kendall had finally done it. She had created an energem. Well, a fake one, but it would be believable enough to fool Sledge.

Along with the energem, Kendall had also created a new Ranger suit. She had run into many problems in it's making. Most of which involved having no idea what was needed to make a Ranger suit that wouldn't look like a Halloween costume. It needed access to weapons just like the real ones. It needed to be able to protect the wearer. Granted, it was much less powerful, as the strength behind the Dino Ranger's suits came from their energems. But it would get the job done. Kendall was sure of it.

And she threw in a bonus. Just to be safe. Rebecca was blind and Kendall assumed she knew how to find her way around. She seemed to find her way around the Dino Lab, and Kendall remembered giving Dr. Oliver's student's a tour and not being able to tell Rebecca was blind for the first half of it. Still, she wanted to give the younger girl every chance possible.

"When you're morphed, the ocular implants should kick in," Kendall explained with a big yawn. "It'll heighten your... dolphin senses?"

"You remembered," Rebecca smiled and held the helmet in her hands. "Wait, what does that mean?"

"You'll be able to see," Kendall told her. "Colours, shapes, all the finer details."

"I won't be blind?"

"Not while morphed," Kendall nodded. Rebecca gripped the helmet a little tighter.

"You built all this in one night?" she asked. "An energem, a Ranger suit, and the cure to my blindness?"

"A temporary cure, a false energem and a Ranger suit with half the power. It'll offer you barely any more protection than your Silver Guardian's vest. But it should get the job done. Sledge, Poisandra, no one should be able to tell the difference."

"Noah's science porn stuff was right. You are amazing," Rebecca smiled then turned to her brother to show off the helmet. Kendall frowned at the comment, but couldn't be bothered to ask for clarification. She was much too tired to care at all.

"So, we've got a decoy Ranger," Jake said. "Now can we get to work on getting my fiancée home?"

"And mine," Jordan added.

"I'll send out a signal from the new energem," Kendall nodded her head. "Once Sledge and Poisandra pick up on it, they'll come to Earth. With any luck, they'll bring Gia and Emma and offer a trade. Get the girls back, but don't give up the Energem."

"Don't give it up?" Rebecca frowned. "I thought..."

"The energem will fool Sledge as long as it's not in his hands. If he has time to analyze it, he'll quickly realise this was a trick. If we're lucky, though it's very doubtful this will be the case, he'll give up his search for the true yellow Energem and look for one he's certain exists."

"And if we're not lucky?" Jake asked. "What do you expect will happen if he gets his hands on your little rock thing?"

"He'll set his sights on Gia once again. And if he hasn't already, he'll kill her," Kendall stated. Jake gulped and cradled his daughter a little closer to his chest. He turned to Jordan. The Silver Guardian's face was pale.

Kendall continued. "Your best chance is keeping the energem in our possession. Sledge will believe our yellow Ranger is bonded. As long as he doesn't figure out your identity, it'll take the heat off your team."

"And back on us," Chase commented. "But, I guess he's already out to kill us. It can't get any worse, right?"

"Let's hope not," Troy said. "Alright, Kendall, if it's ready, send out the signal."

-Dino-Charge-

"No, wait, stop!"

"You have nothing to offer me," Sledge growled and shoved Emma down the hallway. "Without payment, you're worth nothing, your _highness_."

"I can get the energem," Emma tried to reason with him. Sledge shook his head.

"You don't know where it is."

"I'll find it! I swear. Just let her..."

"If I can't have it, I'll take the next best thing. The Ranger it's bonded to" Sledge said, then pushed Emma towards a door, which opened once she got close. Emma looked down and saw the Earth miles beneath her. She gulped then started to fumble for her morpher. Just before she could grab it and morph, Sledge shoved her through the door. Her feet slipped off the floor and she felt herself falling back down to the planet. In the air, she had her morpher in hand and powered up. She reached for a card in her belt, hoping to use her powers to slow her fall. She opened her belt, but the wind picked up all the cards before she could grab even one.

"Shit... shit!" Emma cried. She closed her eyes, felt her body tense up then suddenly heard a loud caw. She opened her eyes again and saw her Huang Spirit flying next to her.

"Yes," she smiled and reached out. She grabbed the bird, clung on to her neck and held on tightly. The Huang was moving fast to keep up with Emma. Now that her mistress was on her back, she needed to find a way to slow their descent before they hit the ground. Phoenix felt her wings quake as she steadied them and tried to get more air below them but the ground was fast approaching.

She cawed loudly just before hitting the ground. She slowed her descent enough to survive, but hit the ground hard enough that she felt the bones in her legs and wings snap. She would be of no use now and retreated back inside her mistress to recover.

Upon landing, Emma had been thrown from her bird's back and landed hard on the ground. Phoenix had slowed them both down enough that the crash was survivable, but now her whole body was wracked with pain.

"Emma!" she heard someone call her name and lifted her head to see who was coming to help. She saw her mother step out of her car and rush over. It was then Emma realized she had crashed in the middle of the street.

Claire knelt beside her daughter and helped her sit up before looking to the sky. "What the hell was that? Were you just joyriding on Phoenix?"

"I wish," Emma muttered. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the pain to get up, but fell before she could get inches off the ground.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Gia not answering her phone, does it?"

"Do you want the truth or a comforting lie?" Emma asked.

"Let's get back home. We can call the others and..."

"We need to get back to Amber Beach."

"Amber Beach?" Claire frowned. "Emma, I don't know where this joyride started, but you made it back to Angle Grove. Amber Beach is over an hour away!"

"My joyride started way up there," Emma pointed to the Sky. "You know the big green armoured monster that's attacking Amber Beach?"

"Don't say you bumped into him. Emma, this Ranger gig is supposed to be over!"

"He's got Gia," Emma finally had the strength to get to her feet. She clutched her ribs tightly and looked to her mother. "I... I accidentally traded her for an energem."

"What?"

"That's not even the worst part," Emma said and looked to her mother sadly. "That energem... doesn't exist."

"I... I don't even know what to say," Claire shook her head, then grabbed her daughter. "Except that we're going home."

"No, mom..."

"I just stopped at the pharmacy. I've got to get Ryan's medicine back home. We'll call the other Rangers then we can get to Amber Beach. In the meantime, you can explain to me how you ended up trading your sister to some big bad alien for some non-existent energy gem or whatever it's called."

Claire helped Emma into the car, then got into the driver's seat and shook her head, "There's another one for the _things I'd never imagine I'd have to say to anyone ever_ list."


	8. Two Teams United

"Kendall..."

"No wake!"

"Yeah, big guy, I know," Chase said before Kendall felt his hand shake her shoulder again. "But we can't get the signal out without her. We'll let her sleep again once this yellow energem nonsense is done."

"But... tired," Koda muttered. "Pass out very fast."

Chase continued to shake Kendall's shoulder, "Come on, Kendall. I know you're tired, but just... five more minutes. Your all nighter will mean nothing if you don't get the signal up and running for Sledge."

Kendall opened her eyes and found she needed to lift her head off her desk. "Huh?"

"You fell asleep," Tyler chuckled. "You were just talking about getting the yellow energem's signal out when you just... passed out."

"Yellow? ...There's no yellow..." Kendall started, then saw the new faces in her lab and remembered what she had been working on. She nodded her head, then pressed _enter_ on her computer. "Right, that energem. Signal's up. Hopefully it won't take too long for Sledge, Poisandra or someone to notice it."

"Hopefully they'll bring Gia and Emma with them," Jordan muttered. "This is all for nothing if they don't bring the girls."

The Rangers sat around, waiting to hear the alarms going off. It wasn't a long wait, but felt like forever, especially for Jordan and Jake. When the alarm did finally sound, they were the first out of their seats. They raced out of the lab. Rebecca would have been right behind them if Troy hadn't caught her by the arm.

"Stick close to me, alright?" he said. Rebecca nodded her head, then morphed.

"I can see you," she smiled behind her helmet. "And wow, do you look worried! Don't worry, I'll be safe."

"Just, don't get carried away," he told her. "Remember, you're not in a real Ranger suit. You can get hurt."

"I know," Rebecca nodded, then pointed to the door. "Can we go now? I kind of want to show up to this battle."

"Yeah," Troy said and led the way out. The Dino Charge Rangers all followed him and Rebecca except for Chase. He glanced over his shoulder just before leaving and saw Kendall had once again passed out on her desk. He chuckled lightly, grabbed his blanket from the cot he had spent the night on and draped it over her shoulders.

"Sleep tight," he told her. "We'll take it from here."

He then looked over to Tiger, who had been left in charge of the kids. Chase questioned Jordan and Jake's trust in the big cat, but he had to admit, a tiger for a babysitter was not the weirdest thing he had seen since becoming a Ranger.

"Keep an eye on her too, eh?" he asked. Tiger gave a little nod before Chase hurried out.

After leaving the museum, he raced down the street to the local park. The Rangers were already there, standing opposite of Sledge. Jordan kept his distance, hiding behind a bush. Without even fake Ranger powers to protect him, he was most vulnerable. But he had made it clear he wanted to be close for Emma. Chase knelt next to him.

"What'd I miss?"

"Sledge brought Gia," Jordan said. "Rebecca's trying to negotiate a trade, just like planned."

"She's not giving up the energem?"

"Of course not," Jordan shook his head. "Troy's back there. Once Sledge agrees to let Gia go, he'll swoop in, grab her, and then we take off. Energem and Gia in hand."

"Good."

"Not good," Jordan said. "Emma's not there."

Chase looked over and frowned. "She's supposed to be with Gia. They left together. Kendall said..."

"She's not," Jordan said. He looked to Chase worriedly. "The girls are close. They'll literally die for each other. Gia's not in a good way... what if he went through Emma first? What if..."

"No worries," Chase put his hand on Jordan's shoulder. "I'll figure this out."

"But..."

"I've got this," Chase smirked. He got back to his feet then joined the others. He saw Rebecca reaching into her belt to pull out the energem Kendall had created.

"This is what you're looking for," she stated as she showed the stone to Sledge. "The yellow Energem. It's bonded to me. Let my friend go!"

"Hand over the energem," Sledge held out one hand while he kept the other wrapped tightly around Gia.

"Let her go, first," Rebecca growled.

Sledge tightened his grip around Gia as he examined the Energem in the new yellow Ranger's hand. It seemed real. It certainly had the look described in the scriptures from long ago. However, he and Poisandra had already been deceived a couple of times.

"If it's real," he asked, "where was it found?"

"In a fossil," Shelby smirked. "Along with other five we found."

"So then who is this?" Sledge pointed to Gia. Jake clenched his fists.

"My fiancée. A former Ranger. And she's got nothing to do with these gems. Our powers come from a different source."

"You mean this?" Sledge asked and held up Gia's morpher. He saw the way the Rangers reacted and smirked. "So this is important? Well, how about we strike a new deal."

"The deal is, you give me back my friend and I'll hand over the energem!" Rebecca growled.

"This is the new deal," Sledge shook his head. "You give me the energem, I'll return this... morpher. Then, we'll make a trade. One yellow Ranger for another."

"Deal!" Jake called out quickly. Rebecca grabbed his arm.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," she shook her head. "Jake, I get she's the love of your life, but I kinda don't want to go with the big green monster."

"I said deal," Jake growled then shoved Rebecca forward. The newest yellow Ranger stumbled. When she hit the ground, she turned around and looked to Jake in shock. She wished he wasn't morphed so she could read his face. She knew how important Gia was to him, but couldn't believe he'd sacrifice her.

But she couldn't do anything to stop the deal going ahead. Viviks quickly grabbed her and pulled her to her feet as they started to drag her to Sledge, whom placed Gia's morpher in her pocket then shoved her to the dirt in favour of his latest prisoner. Rebecca struggled to get herself free so she could run as she was brought to Sledge. Just as he was about to reach out to grab her, a red sword came down and sliced Sledge's wrist. The distraction was enough for Sledge to take his eyes off her and for the Viviks to loosen their hold slightly. Rebecca pulled herself free, kicked the smaller monsters away, then felt someone shove her back to her friends.

"Grab Gia and run!" Troy shouted to her as he held off Sledge. Rebecca nodded her head, picked up her friend from the ground and met the Rangers halfway. Jake wanted to take Gia from her arms, but Rebecca refused.

"You traded me!" she shouted. Jake shook his head.

"I needed Sledge to let go of Gia."

"Fill me in next time, asshole!" Rebecca growled and again refused to let Jake take his fiancée. She stumbled past the Rangers and ran to the bush where Jordan was hiding. She heard a fight breaking out in the park and knew this wasn't going to be the clean escape they had planned.

"Is she okay?" Jordan asked as Rebecca lowered Gia to the ground gently. Rebecca shrugged.

"I don't know. I just got her back."

Jordan lightly tapped Gia's cheek, hoping to rouse her. When she opened her eyes he gently grabbed her face and leaned in.

"Where's Emma?" he asked. Gia took a moment to get her bearings, then frowned.

"Nice to see you too," she muttered. "And thanks for asking, I'm feeling _great_."

"Sorry. Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Where's Emma?" Jordan spat out quickly.

"No, yes, and I... I don't know what he did," Gia frowned. She sat up slowly and looked around. "His monsters took me away and... that's it."

"What did he do to Emma?"

"I... I don't know," Gia shrugged then had a look around. It was then she noticed the yellow Dino Ranger looking at her. She frowned deeply. "I don't remember you."

"Of course you do," Rebecca giggled. "I'm a Ranger now!"

"Becca?"

"A fake Ranger. A trick," Rebecca clarified, "to get Poisandra and the big brute off your back. Kendall made a fake energem and suit so the aliens would believe the energem bonded to me and not you. If all goes well, they'll set their targets on the new yellow Ranger and forget all about you."

"The new... you mean you?"

"They don't know who I am," Rebecca said. "As long as I don't power down in front of them, they'll never know it was me. This is going to work, Gia. You don't have to worry about them coming after you or Ciara anymore. Promise."

"This better work," Gia muttered. She leaned in to give Rebecca a hug but was pulled back before she could. Jordan grabbed her arms and shook her lightly.

"Where is Emma?" he asked. Gia pushed him away, and was just about to repeat herself when she heard a blast. She, Rebecca, and Jordan peeked over the bush to see Sledge and his army standing over all seven fallen Rangers. By the looks of it, Sledge was winning.

"Give me that yellow Energem!" he shouted. His voice made the ground shake. Rebecca looked down at the energem in her hand and remembered Kendall's advice not to let Sledge get it. However, things were looking bad for her friends. She thought of coming out of hiding and handing it over so the beating would stop. They could come up with a new plan later, once she was sure the Rangers were all still alive. But before she could decide to give up the energem, she heard a familiar voice.

"Shark Bowgun!" the blue Megaforce Ranger cried out as he rushed into the park. Rebecca was smiling from ear to ear when she saw Noah had turned up and silently cheered him on as he blasted Sledge away from the Rangers. Then, Orion appeared as the Silver Ranger, and with his trident, he struck down the Viviks surrounding the Rangers.

"This team up just got serious!" Rebecca smiled and looked to Gia and Jordan. He shook his head.

"Not until I know what happened to..."

"Emma?" Gia asked and pointed back to the battle field as the pink Ranger turned up. She seemed a lot more tired than Noah and Orion, but had her Phoenix Shot trained on Sledge as she rushed to stand before her injured teammates. Noah and Orion were quickly by her side.

"Thank goodness," Jordan breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Gia lightly punched his arm.

"You gave me a headache with all your worrying," she said before she reached into her pocket and felt her morpher. She smirked. Jordan looked to her with a frown.

"You look like that, and I'm the one that gave you a headache?" when he saw Gia looked ready to morph, he put his hand over hers. "Hold on. You can barely stand. Whatever Sledge did..."

"He's about to pay dearly for," Gia growled. "Take Rebecca and the fake energem and head back to the museum. We'll hold him off."

"You have a daughter," Jordan reminded her. "You're not supposed to do anything stupid, remember?"

"Wait, you mean you brought her here?"

"What? No, of course not!"

"Then who is that?" Gia asked and pointed across the street. Jordan turned, taking his eyes off his partner for just a moment to see what had gotten her to believe he would ever bring her daughter to a Ranger battle. When he turned back to tell her there was no one there, he only saw Rebecca giggling.

"She got you good!"

Jordan frowned and glanced over the bush to see Gia had joined the other Rangers.

"You'd think you'd know better by now, Myles," Rebecca laughed and pat his back. "Come on. Let's just do what she says."

"But..."

"We've got to keep this safe, remember?" Rebecca held out the yellow energem. Jordan sighed then nodded his head. He looked to the fight, saw Sledge was distracted and took that as his opportunity to run. Just as he started to cross the street, he heard someone call out his name. He turned around, then saw, ducked behind their car, Vanessa, Claire and Ryan were hiding out, watching the fight from a distance. Jordan glanced back to the park to again make sure Sledge was distracted before he pulled Rebecca behind the car.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked his mothers in-law while Rebecca gasped at the sight of Ryan.

"You're so... old!" she said and took her sister in her arms to hug her tight. "Old, but beautiful."

"Ekka..." Ryan grumbled and tried to get out of her sister's arms. Rebecca shook her head.

"Nope. I only get this view for a limited time. I'm not wasting it. Let me look at you," she smiled as she admired her little sister.

Jordan rolled his eyes, then looked back to the mothers, "Seriously, what are you doing here?"

"Who do you think drove?" Claire asked. "Emma told us what happened to her and Gia. And... well, you know how we worry."

"Did they get her back?" Vanessa turned to Jordan. "Gia, is she okay?"

"She's back. She's helping the Rangers hold Sledge off now," Jordan promised. "But we've got to get back to the museum."

"The museum?" Claire frowned. Jordan nodded.

"We get the fake energem back and that'll be the end of Sledge picking on Gia to get it."

"We hope," Rebecca added, then gestured to her Ranger suit. "Thus, the awesome dino costume."

"I wanted to ask," Claire smiled. Jordan pointed down the street to the museum.

"Let's go. Fast!"

He pulled the mothers along. Rebecca took Ryan in her arms and carried her sister back to the museum. The ran around to the back and slid down the secret entrance. There, they found Kendall awake, with a blanket draped over her shoulders, working on her computer.

"I'm sending you all the power I can," she said. "Combine your weapons, have the Megaforce Rangers fire their blasters, and you should weaken Sledge enough to get away."

"Dinosaur," Ryan said and pointed to Kendall. Rebecca nodded her head.

"Yeah, you remember her, right?"

"How's the fight going?" Jordan hurried over to Kendall's work space while Claire and Vanessa had a look around. It wasn't the first command center they had seen, but it was much different from Gosei's or the Sky Ship.

"It's going," Kendall said. "My Rangers don't have the fire power alone to stop Sledge, and your team is trying, but without Gia and Emma at full strength, we don't stand a chance at defeating him."

Kendall typed away, told the Rangers their weapons were ready, then looked up at Jordan, "Our best hope is we injure Sledge enough that he retreats willingly. Otherwise, there's nothing we can do."

Kendall then glanced beyond Jordan to the new faces, "Who'd you bring with you?"

"The in-laws," Jordan said. "Gia and Emma's mothers. And that's their daughter Ryan. Well, foster daughter. She's Troy and Rebecca's sister but the mothers are looking after her."

"Foster?"

"Yeah, you know, foster care," Jordan nodded. "Ryan's parents died in one of the Armada's attacks. Troy looked after his sisters for as long as he could, but when it was clear he couldn't give Ryan the life she deserved, he let the mothers take her in. They've got more stability. Ryan's much happier for it."

"Ryan's a foster kid?" Kendall asked, then shook her head and focused her attention once more on the battle. She watched her Rangers combine their weapons and fire at Sledge. The Megaforce Rangers added to the shot by blasting their own weapons. Sledge was hit right in the chest, and flew backwards several yards before smashing in the dirt. Kendall did a quick scan; saw Sledge's energy readings had dropped significantly. He was alive, but he was weak. Unfortunately, the Rangers couldn't finish him off. The blast had taken all their energy and they were forced to power down. Megaforce was a little stronger, but with two of their Rangers already in pain, Kendall knew she had to end the fight.

"Retreat now! Hopefully Sledge does the same," she instructed her team, then looked to Jordan with a little smile. "That should do it."

Jordan nodded his head and breathed a sigh of relief. He took a seat and waited for his friends and Emma to get back.


	9. Family

"That should be the end of it," Kendall said and shut her laptop down as she looked to all the Rangers and their families in her lab. "Sledge has gone back to his ship; we've got the fake energem here safe and sound. Hopefully, that means there will be no more attacks on Harwood County."

"Hopefully," Jake smiled as he cradled Ciara and looked to his fiancée. "As much as I love coming home, you better not make me skip any more practices. Coach is going to kill me when I get back."

"Practices?" Gia frowned. "You've been here a day. How many could you have really missed?"

"You think I'm leaving you like this?" Jake looked his fiancée over once. "You look like you just finished a fight with Vrak."

"I wish," Gia muttered.

"Yeah, besides, he can't go home with that concussion he's got," Rebecca, still morphed, said as she walked over. Jake frowned and shook his head.

"I got my butt kicked a bit, but I don't think I've got a..." he was interrupted when Rebecca smacked him hard on the back of the head. "Hey!"

"Don't you ever trade me again!" she told him. "I don't care if it's a stranger, your fiancée or your daughter you're trying to protect, you got it, Holling?"

"Ow," Jake rubbed the back of his head and looked to his step-sister. "But it worked out."

"Luckily," Rebecca crossed her arms over her chest. "I was almost a Sledge prisoner."

Rebecca looked to Gia, then to Emma, before turning back to Jake, "And by the looks of it, a Sledge prisoner is a lot of pain."

"Alright, alright," Jake sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again without letting you know of the plan first."

"You better not," Rebecca muttered.

On the other side of the lab, Troy was looking at the energems as they sat in their spot on the wall. There were only five up, as well as five empty spaces. Rebecca's fake energem sat on a ledge nearby. Tyler walked over to him and put his hand on the former red Ranger's shoulder.

"We keep the energem here," he said. "Sledge won't know it was created for your sister. He shouldn't even think to head to Harwood to find her. He'll focus his attacks on us."

"I know that's the plan," Troy sighed. He turned around and watched his sister bicker with Jake. "I'm just worried. She and Ryan are all I've got. If anything happens to either of them."

"So far, Sledge has only gone after Energems he stands a chance at getting," Tyler said. "Now that he believes the yellow Energem's bonded with someone, he'll try going after the other ones. Nothing's going to happen to your sister."

"And when the yellow Ranger doesn't show up in the next battle? What if he goes looking for her?"

"He won't know where to start," Tyler promised. "Your sister and your team are going to be fine. Sledge would be an idiot to go after you guys again."

"I hope you're right," Troy nodded. Then, he saw Chase walking over to Rebecca with what appeared to be a Dino Com. He shook his head and rushed over to interrupt.

"What are you doing?"

"Kendall made up a spare, just in case," Chase said and offered the communicator to Rebecca. "If ever you do run into trouble, just press the screen and help will come."

"And here shovel," Koda said with a big smile as he offered the tool to Rebecca. She looked to it curiously.

"A... shovel?"

"Uh... not just tool for digging fossils," Koda explained. "Also use for fighting bad guys."

"A shovel?" Rebecca asked again. Koda nodded.

"Yes. Very powerful tool. Whole team use them. Save life."

"A shovel?"

"Just, take the gift," Chase nodded with a little laugh. "He means well."

"Okay..." Rebecca handed the shovel to her brother and then nodded to Koda. "Uh, thanks. I guess."

"No problem," Koda smiled, then wrapped his arms around Rebecca and hugged her tight. Rebecca coughed.

"Cave man strength... crushing..."

"Sorry," Koda said as he let her go. Noah walked over and quickly looked Koda up and down.

"He doesn't look like a caveman."

"I never said he looked like a caveman," Rebecca told him. "I said he was a caveman. How could I tell you what he looked like? I was blind."

"Koda is caveman," the new blue Ranger confirmed. "Frozen for thousands of years. Kendall thaw me out."

"I have a hard time believing it without proof," Noah shook his head. Rebecca sighed loudly.

"You'll believe in aliens no problem. But a caveman is too much?"

"We fought aliens, Becca," Noah reminded her. "Don't you remember the Warstar and the Armada."

"And you're looking right at a caveman," Rebecca pointed to Koda then shook her head. "Whatever. I guess, like always, you'll wait to see the research comes out."

"Yeah, something tells me that's going to be a while," Chase said. "Kendall's not really working on a paper about discovering a living caveman right now."

"Well, when she does, I'll be the first to read it," Noah promised.

"Then will you believe your successor is a caveman."

"Maybe."

Rebecca groaned loudly. Orion walked over and put his hand on her shoulder.

"You going to power down any time soon?" he asked. "Karone keeps asking me when I'll be home. We're just waiting on you."

"Power down?" Rebecca looked to her Ranger suit then to her friends. "But... I can see."

"You're not keeping the Ranger suit," Troy reminded her. "That was the deal. We keep it here so Sledge doesn't find out who you are."

"But..." Rebecca looked down at the suit one more time then nodded. "Alright. I... I guess, if I have to."

She powered down partially, leaving only her helmet. She saw Troy shaking his head.

"You mean I can't just keep this part?" she asked.

"We can talk to Tensou about the implants..."

"You mean the ones where's got to scoop out my eyeballs, leave me eyeless while he creates implants that fit, and then hope he can use those to restore my sight? Uh, what part of eww, ouch, and just the thought of that makes me physically ill, do you not understand."

"You're not walking around with a helmet on your head, Rebecca. You'll draw too much attention to yourself, and Sledge and Poisandra..."

"I know, I know," Rebecca sighed. She reached for her helmet and slowly removed it. In a matter of a second, her vision was completely gone. She passed the helmet to Troy for him to return and felt Noah pull her in for a warm hug.

"What if we stopped for ice-cream on the way back?" he asked. Rebecca sighed.

"Alright..."

"Perfect," Orion said. He turned to the others. "Guys, you all coming?"

"We're just getting the kids ready," Emma nodded her head. "Tell Karone you'll be home soon."

"Perfect," Orion smiled.

While Jake was busy strapping Ciara into her car seat, Gia was putting Tiger's vest back on. Once she had it secured around her cat, she looked over to the Dino Rangers. While they were saying goodbye to their Ranger counterparts, Kendall seemed to be hanging back, by her computer. It was obvious she was much too tired to get up to say goodbye, but Gia knew there was something going on. Since they had returned from the fight, Kendall had her eyes on the kids and Jordan and Jake.

"Tell the others I'll catch up," she told her cat when she saw the Rangers heading up into the museum. Then she walked over to Kendall. "The yellow dino Ranger idea was brilliant."

"Thanks," Kendall whispered. "But it was Rebecca's idea. I just built it."

"Once she gets over being blind again, she's going to be really thrilled she got the chance to be her own Ranger," Gia chuckled. "You just made a fan's dream, you know."

"Yeah, sure."

"So, can I ask you something?"

Kendall looked to Gia and shrugged, "Depends on what it is?"

"What's your deal?"

"Huh?"

"Come on. I practically have to fight with you just to get you to realize my morpher is important to protecting my family. Then, all of a sudden, you spend the entire night working on a crazy complex project so I don't need to worry about Sledge or Poisandra coming after me and hurting my daughter in the crossfire. Then, once it's all over, you spend the whole afternoon staring at the kids and my fiancé and partner?"

"I wasn't staring."

"You were. Look, I'm not threatened. You're not exactly Jake's type and... well, if you can break Jordan and Emma up, you'd be my hero."

"It's not that," Kendall shook her head. She saw the others had cleared out of the lab and took a deep breath. "Jake and Jordan are really good fathers, aren't they?"

"I hope so," Gia nodded her head. "I mean, of course but... why...?"

"And you... Getting on Sledge's ship, all for a morpher you might never use again, just to ensure your daughter's safety," Kendall said then pointed to the many bruises Gia had earned from Sledge. "You're going to be in pain for weeks."

"Parents do crazy things for their kids," Gia said. "Ciara's my whole world. If anything happened to her, even just the thought that something could upsets me. I want her feeling safe. I don't want her feeling the same way I once did."

"Are you a foster kid too?"

"Foster kid?" Gia frowned and shook her head. "Why would you think that?"

"It's just... Jordan said your mothers fostered Ryan. A lot of foster families take in a few kids in their run so I..."

"Vanessa's my mother. My biological mother," Gia explained. "Claire's her wife and Emma's biological mother. They fostered, then adopted Ryan. They chose to bring her into the family. They were stuck with me."

"So, that thing with you and Ciara. All those risks you took for her. Those bruises..."

"I had a bad boyfriend experience," Gia said. "It got me believing for a long time that I couldn't trust anyone. And when you can't trust people, you end up feeling..."

"Lonely?"

Gia nodded her head, "That's why you were looking at the kids. That's why you're asking about Ryan. You're a foster kid."

"I..."

"You've got scars," Gia said. "So, what happened?"

"You really want to hear the details?"

"Someone helped me when I was feeling low," Gia nodded her head. "A former Ranger, in fact. I'll pay it forward."

"I'm not a Ranger."

"You're part of the family," Gia smiled. "And trust me, your team is your family."

"My father left when I was six. Eight years later, my mother killed herself. This was after she drilled it into my head that people were only going to hurt me. I've... struggled ever since."

"Sounds like a darker version of what happened to Emma," Gia commented. Kendall frowned.

"Seriously?"

"Her mother's great now, but there was a time... well, let's just say Emma knows what it's like to have parents she can't count on. That's why we're so close. My parents ended up taking her in. Sixteen years too late, but hey, better late than never, right?"

"So, Emma's a foster kid?"

"Emma's family. My whole team is my family. Look, I don't know your issues. I can't claim to relate to them at all. But I had my walls up too once. Trust me, they're better down."

"My walls protect me."

"They isolate you," Gia said. "Your team, they're good people. They have to be if they're Rangers."

"I know that. And I'm trying to befriend them. It's just... hard. The person I'm closest to is Koda, but opening up to him is still hard."

"Yeah, it'll take time," Gia nodded. "And a lot of stumbling and tears and... you know that scary stuff you're hiding from. But trust me; before you get as bad as I once was, it's okay. They've got your back."

"I guess I know that," Kendall said.

"And... well, this might not mean a lot, coming from me. My parents were amazing. But... just take my word for it. Sometimes, the best family you'll ever have is the one you make yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kendall promised. Suddenly, Emma came back down.

"Gia, you coming? The kids are starting to get fussy and Tiger's kind of eyeing the fossils and growling. It's pretty weird."

"I'll be right up," Gia nodded. Emma turned to leave. Gia smiled and pointed to the pink Ranger. "Seriously. No blood shared between us yet she's the person I trust the most in this world. She babysits my daughter. If you knew me a little better, you'd know that says a lot."

"Gia, let's go!" Emma called to her. Gia groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Sheesh, I'm coming your majesty!"

"Stop that!"

"What? You're apparently the new ruler of the Armada," Gia started to follow Emma out. "The Queen, I think Sledge called you."

"Shut up before I blast your robot heart out of your chest."

"I dare you to try!" Gia said before the girls were gone. Kendall shook her head.

"I'm guessing I don't want to know," she pulled the blanket that was still draped around her shoulders a little tighter and leaned back in her chair. She was still exhausted from staying up all night, and thought maybe she would rest her eyes a little while the Rangers finished up saying their goodbyes.

-Dino-Charge-

"So, if they've got two suits, do you think that counts as two teams or one?" Tyler asked his teammates on the way back to the Lab.

"Who cares?" Chase asked. "Those pirate costumes were sick! If I could be any other team, I'd want to be the pirate Rangers."

"I don't think they call themselves pirate Rangers," Riley shook his head. "I think those were Super Megaforce. And the other suits were just Megaforce."

"Super Mega?" Shelby chuckled. "They couldn't come up with something better?"

"We didn't name our team. Maybe they didn't have a choice in the matter either?" Tyler pointed out.

"What do you think their weapons are called?" Chase joked. "Super Mega Morphers? Super Mega Blasters?"

"I don't think I'd make fun of them," Riley said. "We didn't hear much about them back on the farm, but rumour has it they have the power to turn into any Ranger they want."

"Seriously?" Shelby asked. "Any Ranger?"

"Actually, I remember hearing that," Tyler nodded. "And wasn't there something about a Legendary team up? All the past Rangers came back to help them stop their big bad? Whatever his name was."

"Still," Chase laughed. "Super Mega? Seriously?"

"Shh!" Koda suddenly said and covered Chase's mouth. The Rangers saw him pointing to a sleeping Kendall. "Now she sleep."

"Yeah, big guy. Now she can rest," Chase nodded.

"I still can't believe it," Riley whispered.

"Super Mega?" Chase chucked softly. The green Ranger sighed and shook his head.

"No. That Ms. Morgan created an energem and a Ranger suit in a single night."

"Believe it," Koda said. "Kendall super smart. Can do anything!"

"Yeah, she is pretty amazing," Chase nodded. "Come on, guys. Let's let her rest."

As the Rangers made their way back up to the museum, Kendall cracked on eye open slightly and smiled.

"_Sometimes, the best family you'll ever have is the one you make yourself."_

Maybe they weren't quiet family yet, but Kendall was slowly coming around to the idea. While she didn't trust them completely, they were the five people she trusted the most. And that had to mean something.


End file.
